Abstract:

Rain-fed agricultural productivity has continually declined due to unpredictable and unreliable rainfall patterns in Kirinyaga
West County. The decline in food productivity has been as a result of inadequate understanding of intra-seasonal rainfall variability
to develop optimal cropping calendar. A study was conducted to access the effect of various water harvesting and integrated soil
fertility management technologies for enhanced sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) and cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) productivity
in Kirinyaga West County, Central Kenya. The field experiment was laid out in Partially Balanced Incomplete Block Design (PBIBD)
with a total of 36 treatments replicated three times. The treatments of tied ridges and contour furrows under sorghum alone plus
external soil amendment of 40 Kg P /ha + 20 Kg N /ha + manure 2.5 t/ha had the highest grain yield ranging from 3.3 t/ha to 3.6t/ha.
The soil fertility levels differed significantly from one another (p=0.0001) in terms of sorghum grain yield. Generally, all experiment
controls had the lowest grain yields as low as 0.4 t/ha to 0.6 t/ha. Therefore, integration of minimal organic and inorganic inputs under
various water harvesting technologies could be considered as an alternative option towards food security as a way of climate change
mitigation options for Kirinyaga West County in Central Kenya.
Key words: Climate change, food security, soil amendments